Invisible Work

Moving is a lot of work. Most everything is unpacked but there are quite a few things that don’t have places yet.

I just don’t have enough hours in the day. Can you feel me?

All my invisible work gets in the way.

What’s invisible work you ask?

It’s work that has to be done and takes a lot of time but no one notices… unless it doesn’t get done.

Let me explain. Laundry.

You start with a nice tidy room. You remove the laundry basket, wash, dry and fold (maybe even iron) the laundry, then tuck each clean item back into it’s home in the room. You have worked for about 3 hours and you end up right where you started – with a nice tidy room.

The same can be said for dishes, cooking a meal and paying the bills.

If you do all your invisible work, then the well oiled machine that is your life just keeps chugging along. If you don’t do your invisible work then you have 6 clean loads of laundry in your bedroom waiting to be folded (ahem), a sink piled high with dirty dishes (ahem), and your electricity goes out (thank God for bill pay on my smart phone or that wouldn’t get done either!).

So I guess what I’m saying is, I’m working so much on my invisible work, the “extra” things like hanging pictures on the wall or setting up my office aren’t getting done.

Flustering.

But that’s part of the job.

A job I chose.

A job that some women (and men) would kill for.

When I’m in the midst of my invisible work I kinda hate it. But after I’m done, I’m proud.

I don’t care if that sounds lame.

I’m proud when my house is clean… um… replace clean with tidy… um replace tidy with comfortable.

Yeah. I’m proud my house is comfortable.

This mom thing is work. A lot of work. A funny duality of difficulty and honor.

I GET to be a mom. Not everyone does and I’m thankful.

In fact, I love it.

Last week we had some hot summer rain. After putting the little kids down for naps, Eli and I had some precious alone time. We lounged in our backyard under our tree on our big picnic quilt talking. He’s five now so we can really talk about things. I asked him about his dreams. He told me he wanted to buy all the expensive lego sets. I listened. I wanted to know what was on his mind. He told me he is nervous about starting Kindergarten this September. I listened. I asked him if he had any neat plans I could help with. He wants to plant a garden. A garden in our yard for lots of fruits and vegetables. His plan is to put a sign in the garden that says ‘free food’ and if anyone is hungry or homeless they can have the food from our garden. Wow.

Being a mom means being a part of something big. Bigger than we can ever imagine. Maybe bigger than we’ll ever know.

Invisible work. What a small price to pay for the privilege of being, mom.

Now I’m going to fold some laundry.

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Kara Noel Lawson

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